Political Passion Vs. Legal Process

July 26, 1993

Nothing is so much fun for a politician as an opponent's scandal, and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives may be forgiven for enjoying the spectacle of Democrats coping with the serious charges made against one of their titans, Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski of Chicago. But at some point the fun can becomes irresponsibility, as it has for the House GOP.

A brouhaha erupted Thursday on the floor over whether to release the records of the House post office investigation conducted by a special House task force. Federal prosecutors are also digging into the matter and last week elicited a guilty plea from former House postmaster Robert V. Rota of providing a "largely untraceable source of illegal cash" to several House members, including a "Congressman A," generally believed to be Rostenkowski.

The Democrats balked at the Republican demand for instant publication on the reasonable ground that the publiciity could only jeopardize the prosecutors' work. You don't have to take their word for it: Interim U.S. Attorney J. Ramsey Johnson wrote a letter to House leaders asking them not to make the records public because doing so would have "a significant adverse effect on the ongoing criminal investigation."

That request was the subject of the loudest exchange on the floor, after California Republican William Thomas suggested that Speaker Thomas Foley had solicited the letter to justify his action. Foley angrily denied doing any such thing and Thomas was forced to apologize for his groundless charge.

There is nothing to be gained by haste in releasing the evidence and plenty to be lost. The evidence against the House members, if it is credible, will come out soon enough. Until then, the needs of criminal justice should continue to take precedence over the preferences of the Republicans, whose apparent motive is not to inform the public but to embarrass the opposition.